Lists

With the 41st Toronto International Film Festival around the corner, the list of films set to be playing cover so many styles and genres that there truly is something for every taste. TIFF is about variety and access. It is friendly to the public and is far from being an exclusive affair. It is a celebration of film, filmmakers and film lovers. That said, deciding on what movies to target is a tall order with such a massive slate.

I’ll be covering TIFF for Under the Radar this year. The festival runs from September 8 – 18. The following are 10 movies I’m especially interested in seeing with a little rundown on why I’m looking forward to them. After this, I’ll have a second 15 titles I’m also interested in. This is only scratches the surface of the total list. If your most anticipated is missing, feel free to pop on down in the comments section and make a case for it. Depending on the schedule, I likely won’t be able to see all of these movies during the festival. It’s 10 days of running around to various venues and still finding the time to eat, sleep and write. Onto the list!

The 88th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen on Sunday, February 28th. As in years past, we've taken a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. Today, he looks at this year's animated category.

The 88th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen on Sunday, February 28th. This week we've taken a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. In this first installment, he'll look at this year's live action category.

Okay, we know we're late on this one. It's the end of January 2016 and we're only now just posting our best TV shows of 2015 list. But in our defense, there is a lot of TV to get through these days, on a lot of different platforms. The golden age of TV just keeps glowing and growing. Every week it seems as though there's another new show we're supposed to check out or another 13 episodes we're suddenly expected to binge watch on Netflix. So it took us awhile to work our way through 2015's best shows and compile this list and there were so many good shows we settled on a Top 75.

These days, any snobby faux intellectual that tells you at a party, "I don't watch TV, I read books," doesn't know what they're talking about (although reading books is good too). 2015 saw the continued dominance of streaming services (especially Netflix) and cable TV, although there's room on our list for network TV shows too, but only one network show made our Top 10 (FOX's The Last Man on Earth). This year there were two radically different new female superhero shows, the more traditional but still fun Supergirl and the much darker but still fun Jessica Jones. Fargo's second season gamely traveled back to the '70s. The dead still walked in Alexandria (while another zombie solved crimes in Seattle). A comedy tackled depression in a very real way. And it turns out we lost World War II. Meanwhile Mr. Robot blew our mind with all its twists and turns. But it was a new show from a standup comic and former network sitcom supporting player that took our top spot. Aziz Ansari boldly stepped out on his own to create, write, and star in Master of None, a new Netflix comedy that expertly and hilariously tackles the ins and outs of modern life from the perspective of a struggling Indian American actor fighting against racial stereotypes.

Without further ado, finally here's our best TV shows of 2015 list to help you plan your next binge watching marathon. Happy viewing! By Mark Redfern

Comic books just keep getting better and better, and 2015 was a glorious year for the medium. From trades (hard- or paperback editions that typically collect five or six issues of an on-going series) to original graphic novels to single monthly issues, the year was rife with magnificent, deep, multi-layered storytelling that offered something to virtually everyone. (Image Comics, one of the largest and only creator-owned publishers in the industry, dominates the list with our picks for both first and second best comic of 2015, as well as a handful of others. DC, Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, and First Second also appear frequently.)

As always, you have your capes and tights-superhero books are as strong as ever and comprise a substantial part of our Top 10 best of the year. Yet, comic book newcomers who look down upon the medium as exclusively a home for masked crime-fighters are liable to be surprised by what else the medium offers (and that's saying nothing about the detailed and deeply moving story arcs prevalent in superhero titles these days). From Scott McCloud's masterful The Sculptor to Mike's Place, which chronicles the days leading up to and after a real life suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, modern comics and graphic novels eschew the "funny-pages" of yesteryear, replacing them with intensely emotional, relatable, fully developed characters and stories that delve into the human experience in ways that rival any movie, book, or other art form.

Americana is a beguiling genre, as vast and wide ranging as the landscape from which it takes its name. Everything from the blues to bluegrass can be incorporated, leaving fans debating for hours on end-over endless sips of whiskey no doubt-about which records count. Compiling a Top 10 list of such works is an equally ramshackle endeavor, especially in 2015, one of the genre's strongest and most diverse years in recent memory. This best-of certainly may not be definitive, but it covers a broad swath of promising unknowns, long heralded up-and-comers coming into their own, and a few time-honored legends who are by no means fully grown. All that and more is explored below in Under the Radar's 2015 Americana Top 10. By Kyle Mullin

Unorthodox movies ruled the year in 2015. Our Top Films this year include one shot entirely on iPhones and another shot entirely with puppets; one movie-length car chase and one movie-length interview; another movie set primarily in a tiny room, and one set almost entirely in a little girl’s head. The below list was calculated from personal top film ballots submitted byUnder the Radar’sfilm staff. The titles with the most frequent—and highest-placed—appearances on those ballots were tallied and ranked as our Top Films of the year. Scroll down to see our picks and read our reasoning behind them.

Hip-hop heads will be talking about 2015 for a generation. It was a growth spurt year for the still somewhat young genre. Many of its long held views about race relations, social injustice, and poverty were deepened and nuanced as a response to a seemingly endless parade of police brutality. Meanwhile, the genre's styles and conventions were vaulted forward like never before. Leading the way were a half dozen youngsters who came into their own. But rap's elders also put forth thrillingly laudable efforts-from Ghostface Killah to Cannibal Ox and even the all-but-forgotten Dr. Dre, the latter of whom unfortunately didn't make the cut on this list. Numerous other LPs were also nearly included, from a shocking ante upping by the once irrelevant The Game, to a bitterly underrated turn by perpetual burgeoning MC Mac Miller. Hell, Ghostface alone released a trio of sterling LPs in the past 12 months. This all proves the richness of rap's current state, making it impossible to limit our favorites to a Top 10. Instead, esteemed critics Jim Scott, Marty Hill, Scott Dransfield, and myself present 2015's Top 15 hip-hop releases. Feel free to beef with us about those choices in the comments section below. By Kyle Mullin

We're not sure how most music publications can cap their Albums of the Year lists at 50, there are too many worthy albums most years to leave it at that. Last year Under the Radar published a Top 140 Albums of 2014 list and in 2013 it was 125. This year we calmed down a little and settled on an easy Top 100. Even then there were about five or so albums I regret us leaving off the list (but a Top 105 just doesn't have quite the right ring to it).

Here's how it went down. Twenty-eight of our writers and editors (including our two publishers) each submitted their personal Top 45 albums of 2015 lists and then those were all combined and calculated together to form this master list. For an album to make the list it had to be picked by at least three writers, but most were picked by more writers than that. Our #1 album was the runaway winner, with all but five of those who voted having it on their list somewhere. Each album in our Top 10 was picked by an average at least 20 of our writers.

While certainly many albums on our Top 100 have also shown up on other critics' Best Albums of 2015 lists, each year we are confounded by the multitude of great releases that don't find themselves on many other lists besides our own. But one of the chief joys of doing Under the Radar is championing worthy artists and albums that are shut out of the cycle of hype and thus neglected. Our partial and simple hope with this list is that you'll discover a new favorite that you may have missed in 2015. Finally, be sure to pick our Best of 2015 print issue, due out soon. It features new interviews with around 25 of the artists featured on this list, including five of the artists in our Top 10.

So read on to see how Father John tamed Wolf Alice in a beach house with a deer hunter and an Indian that was neon, while evading a sex witch and a priest from LA. It's a trip to the fading frontier with Carrie and Lowell, but make sure every eye is open as you brave the currents and return to the moon or you might meet the grim reaper and get to heaven. By Mark Redfern

Let me make something crystal clear before the diehards start in on me: Neither myself nor anyone at Under the Radar is saying that "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is the best Simple Minds song (everyone knows that's "Someone Somewhere In Summertime") or that "If You Leave" is OMD's finest moment. That's not what this little write-up is about (see: title of article). But since we're on the subject, both songs are killer. Yea, yea, yea-we know Simple Minds didn't write their biggest, most popular, and most recognizable single. Not sure why that matters or takes away from its greatness. And as for "If You Leave," OMD are proud of it. Paul Humphreys told me himself when I interviewed him in 2013. SO BACK OFF.

Anyway, I realize that nearly a third of this list is made up of soundtrack moments from Planes, Trains & Automobiles. I'm not saying that's the best John Hughes movie, though I could easily be convinced. Just saying it has some of the best soundtrack moments. That scene near the end when Steve Martin is on the train reflecting on the week he's had with John Candy? And thinking about his wife and kids? And that Dream Academy song is playing? SHEESH. Note: I've included the vocal version of The Dream Academy's "Power to Believe"; the film uses the instrumental version, which until last year had never been officially released.

Also, some of these tracks were in the movies, but never made it to the official soundtracks. Licensing shit I imagine. But that doesn't matter anymore, because the Internet and stuff!

I've done my best to dig up the actual clips on YouTube, though not every clip is available. Per usual, I've also dumped the tunes into a Spotify playlist for ya (except for "Twist & Shout" because there's no love between The Beatles and Spotify), so between the two formats, we've got ya covered.

What are your favorite John Hughes soundtrack moments? We wanna know. Sound off in the comments!

Björk is Iceland's most celebrated musical export. She's been singing since childhood, and gained prominence in the '80s as frontwoman for The Sugarcubes. She left that band in the early '90s to pursue a solo career, driven mostly by her unparalleled creative output. Björk is known for pushing boundaries both sonically and visually, leaving a trail of strange and beautiful works throughout her long and impressive career.

Her latest album, Vulnicura, is but another milestone for Björk. As with anyone who's been around so long and made such an impact, diving headfirst into her back-catalog is a little daunting. Björk's work is ethereal, modern, abstract, and whimsical. In another word, intimidating.

Björk's work isn't all oblique and avant garde. At the very core of her discography is an inventive pop performer, and her music is always centered on the sheer power and versatility of her voice. It is impossible to rank her albums on quality alone, since they rarely deviate from a standard her fans expect. Instead, this list will serve as more of a guide for those who know they need to listen to Björk, but have put it off too long and don't know where to begin. I will attempt to set out a path that will ease the listener into Björk's world, starting with her most accessible record, leading into her more challenging work. I stuck to her adult studio albums (so no self-titled 1977 album recorded when she was 11) and didn't include her two soundtracks (2000's Selmasongs and 2005's Drawing Restraint 9). Here we go. By Cody Ray Shafer

A year ago, when The Walking Dead returned for its season four mid-season premier, there was nothing but questions. Did Judith survive the zombie horde? When would Carol return? Would Lizzie freak out and kill everyone? This time around, the show is as close to a reset point as it has been since walkers overran Hershel's farm and forced the group into exile at the end of season two. With no antagonists left to fight and no clear destination point on the horizon, the show's characters are left with the same questions they faced three seasons ago: Where are they going? How are they going to survive? And, in a world where there is nothing but moral shades of gray, what kind of people will they be? The answers to those questions will determine the trajectory of the show for the next eight episodes. By Matt Fink

Better late than never. While most of our Best of 2014 lists were posted to our website back in December, it's taken us awhile to get our Top 100 Songs of 2014 one done. Compiling and deciding upon the very best songs of any given year is a daunting task, there are thousands upon thousands of tracks to choose from and while it's often easy to agree to the year's best albums there are a multitude of opinions on which songs from those albums are the highlights. Because we didn't want the list to just be a repeat of all the same artists that were on our Top 140 Albums of 2014 list, we limited it to only one song per artist (two tops). Otherwise there would have been as many as four songs each by The War on Drugs and St. Vincent on this list, for example. Many of the songs that otherwise would have made this list had we not instituted that rule are included in our extensive honorable mentions list at the end.

Our writers each submitted a list of their 50 favorite songs of the year and those all combined to form this master list. We tried to keep it to songs first released in 2014, but some songs originally released in 2013 or earlier but featured on 2014-released albums may have snuck through. Conversely some songs featured on 2015 albums, but released as singles in 2014, are included. There are Youtube embeds for each song, so hopefully you're find a previously undiscovered gem.

For me personally, 2014 was a bit of a tough year, but the three songs that most helped me get through it were The War on Drugs' "Under the Pressure," Real Estate's "Primitive," and The Horrors' "I See You," although many of the songs on this list were also important tools in helping me control my frustrations and maintain my sanity. Which songs meant the most to you in 2014? By Mark Redfern

Comic books are increasingly becoming a widely accepted, mainstream art form. The days when comics were for niche consumers-guilty pleasure reads for all but the most hardcore fanboys and girls-are rapidly receding into the past. And as the medium gains momentum, the output gets better and better. Publishers still print superhero titles on a weekly basis, many of which go on to become summer blockbusters or to inspire television shows. Increasingly, though, comics and graphic novels diverge from the traditional cape and tight stories the medium is primarily associated with, and the results are often some of the most impressive, exciting, and moving stories told all year.

No Best of 2014 recap would be complete without a look at the year's comic book standouts. Under the Radar's picks for Top 25 Comic Books of 2014 Is below, as selected by the comic book staff. Though recognizable DC and Marvel characters are indeed represented on the list, a significant number of the titles were released by smaller publishers and have nothing to do with superheroes. Read below to find out why certain titles made our Top 10, and continue scrolling to see the 15 other titles we think deserve recognition. By Zach Hollwedel

Our Best TV Shows of 2014 list was once again dominated by cable shows. No broadcast show made our Top 10, with CBS' The Good Wife coming close at #11. Almost twice as many cable shows made this list as broadcast shows. And cable channels HBO and FX were nearly tied for the most shows per channel (10 HBO shows and nine FX shows made our list). Of the big four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC), NBC did the best with eight shows on the list and, despite The Good Wife, CBS faired the worst with only two shows.

Those Under the Radar writers and editors who felt they had watched enough TV in 2014 to weigh in on the year's best TV submitted a list of their Top 20 favorite TV shows of 2014 and those lists were all combined and calculated into this master list. Our #1 show, The Walking Dead, has long been a favorite of our writers. We devoted a whole week of coverage to the show in October, so it's no wonder it took the top spot. It was our #1 in 2012, but #2 in 2013 (Breaking Bad's final seasontopped our list then). But two freshman shows (The Leftovers and Fargo) came in at #2 and #3 and quite a few new programs made the list (including True Detective, Missing, Silicon Valley, The Flash, You're the Worst, Penny Dreadful, Gotham, Constantine, Selfie, Marry Me,and others).

There are some critically acclaimed new shows that don't appear on the list (Transparent, The Affair, Jane the Virgin, Black-ish, The Honorable Woman, Mozart in the Jungle, The Roosevelts, How to Get Away with Murder, The Normal Heart, Broad City), as none of our writers had them on their personal lists. That may be because they simply didn't watch any of them (we are a music magazine/website mainly and they are mostly music critics, not TV critics—how many TV critics listened to all of 2014's best albums?) or perhaps because they didn't rate them as highly as other critics did. There's simply so much good TV out there these days that it's impossible to keep up with every single show, but here are the 60 best shows we did watch in 2014. By Mark Redfern

This passing year yielded ridiculous riches in genre filmmaking, with half of Under the Radar’s favorite films falling into science fiction, horror, or another recognizable cinematic niche. Mix in a number of highly ambitious auteur projects and close-up character portraits and you have Under the Radar’s Top 20 Films of 2014.

The below list was calculated from personal top film ballots submitted by Under the Radar’s film staff. The titles with the most frequent—and highest-placed—appearances on those ballots were tallied and ranked as our Top Films of the year. Scroll down to see our picks and read our reasoning behind them.

Late night performances are a weird, mixed bag for artists and listeners alike. Not counting Later...With Jools Holland, most late night shows tack on their musical guests as some footnote to everything else that's going on. They can strip the power of artists and their songs (which the artists are probably playing at their most-polished), mainlining them as some curious side attraction to whatever comedy bits stand to take the Internet by viral storm. That said, late night performances are also the platform from which many artists kickstart their public momentum, indulging the whims of up-too-late teens who may grow up to be music nerds (or music journalists). Given that the past year inspired some massive changes to this platform, with David Letterman's and Jay Leno's retirement preceding the consecration of Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert in their new positions (and guiding the inevitable rise of Seth Meyers), we're seeing late night television retake its place as a major engine for up-and-coming artists of all genres.

Even though The Orwells started this year off with a stage-writhing bang, we're not saying a whole lot about them now. A year of non-stop stellar releases from visionary artists of all genres yielded more than enough stand-out performances to pack this list. Is your favorite below? By Sameer Rao

This was a good year for actors to explore what it's like to be human, or what it's like to be a woman, or what it's like to have a tempestuous relationship with your mother, or what it's like to be an actor. From the humanity of Scarlett Johansson (who's on here twice!) to the ferocity of young Antoine-Olivier Pilon, 2014 was packed with incredible performances. To boil it all down, this year was about performativity; the personas we create and embody and showcase to the world around us. And here are the very best. By Kyle Turner

2014, the year that U2 invaded the privacy of half a million Apple users and Mark Kozelek fought The War on Drugs. Ariel Pink also went to battle with Madonna and Grimes. And Taylor Swift shook it off all the way to the best first week U.S. album sales in 12 years, but U.S. album sales also hit a record low (best illustrated by Paula, Robin Thicke's big flop of an attempt to win back his estranged wife, Paula Patton).

Chris Walla left Death Cab for Cutie, Neutral Milk Hotel announced their final shows, Vivian Girls called it quits, and Guided By Voices broke up again (but don't worry, Robert Pollard probably has five new solo albums already in the works). On TV we said goodbye to Sons of Anarchy, The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, The Colbert Report, Psych, True Blood, and, in one of the most disappointing series finales this side of Lost, How I Met Your Mother (spoiler alert: the mom dies).

But then Slowdive, Sleater-Kinney, OutKast, Ride, and Pink Floyd all returned. And we got TV series premieres for Fargo, True Detective, Missing, The Flash, The Leftovers, Gotham, and Garfunkel & Oates. Richard Linklater's 12-years-in-the-making opus Boyhood was finally released and we checked into Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel. We helped Benedict Cumberbatch play The Imitation Game and Chris Pratt guard the galaxy. PlusDavid Lynch and Mark Frost announced that they were taking another twisted trip to Twin Peaks in 2016. "Weird Al" Yankovic was also back in a big way, getting "handy" and "tacky" with a bunch of viral videos and his first ever #1 album.

But it wasn't all fun and games. We may have just landed a probe on a comet for the first time ever, but 2014 was a tumultuous year for world events, both in America and internationally. One passenger jet disappeared without a trace and another was shot down in Ukraine, while a Virgin Galactic test flight also fatally crashed. The Ebola Virus ravaged Africa. The police shooting of unarmed suspect Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, sparked massive protests and renewed the dialogue on police shootings and racism in America. ISIS' reign of terror and beheadings continued unabated and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict also worsened. Robin Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman both died under tragic circumstances and we also lost Bobby Womack, Gravenhurt's Nick Talbot, Harold Ramis, Bob Hoskins, Rik Mayall, Lauren Bacall, and music photographer David Redfern. The 44% of Scottish people who voted for independence were left disillusioned. The U.S. midterm elections were either disastrous or victorious, depending on your party affiliation. And, spoiler alert, Beth died on The Walking Dead!

Despite all the disease and terror and protests and zombies, we'll always have the music of 2014 to look back fondly on. And what a year it was for tunes. Other music magazines and websites might present you a Top 50 albums of 2014, a Top 100 at most, but we couldn't leave it at that-too many great albums would be left out. So here we have the Top 140 Albums of 2014. It's a slight, but helpful, coincidence that "14" appears in both numbers.

Here's how it went down. Twenty-four of our writers and editors (including our two publishers) each submitted their personal Top 45 albums of 2013 lists and then those were all combined and calculated together to form this master list. For an album to make the list it had to be picked by at least three writers and when all the calculating was done we came up with 140 titles and just went with it. Our #1 album was the runaway winner, with all but four of those who voted having it on their list somewhere (many at #1, most in their Top 10). But our #2 album also made a very strong showing.

So now that you've finally dried off and warmed up from that ice bucket challenge you did back in the summer and have survived another Black Friday (and up to a record seven feet of snow in late November if you live in Upstate New York), sit back and peruse our choices for the best that music had to offer in 2014. And let us know in the comments below if we somehow left out anything you loved or you have any other thoughts on the list. By Mark Redfern

Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Dan Lucas ranks U2.

There can be few bands who suffer as much opprobrium in these Internet days as U2. Sure, the likes of Beady Eye and Nickelback perhaps attract more vehement attacks, but the sheer scale of everything about U2-their album sales, sound, and frontman's persona-means that they surely stand alone. Much of this is deserved, be it for increasingly diminishing returns on the quality of their music or for their questionable marketing. The average online hater though is a person of short memory: over the course of 13 "proper" albums they produced records that either defined an era or went all out and changed it. There are duds, sure, mostly towards the latter part of their career, but the task of ranking said 13 albums reveals-as if such a fact needed revealing-that U2 are a band with a rich, varied and brilliant history that's worth celebrating... no matter how many "Elevations" they release. By Dan Lucas

This week is Walking Dead Week on Under the Radar's website. Season five of the wildly popular and critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic zombie drama starts this Sunday, October 12, at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) on AMC. In anticipation of the show's return, for this special theme week of coverage we have interviewed around 10 members of the show's current cast and will be posting one to two Walking Dead interviews every day this week. Also, here's a Walking Dead list.

As The Walking Dead's success is at least partly built upon its ability to provide a constant supply of shocking moments, narrowing down a list to only 10 entries is no simple task. You find yourself leaving off scenes such as The Governor biting off Merle Dixon's fingers or Michonne digging out The Governor's eye because they aren't quite shocking enough. That said, a truly shocking moment isn't just a scene that caused you a moment of temporary discomfort and repulsion but one that remained memorable because it represented an unexpected shift in the storyline, one that changed the trajectory of the show. Here are the 10 moments that remain burned into the memories of Walking Dead fans. By Matt Fink

This week is Walking Dead Week on Under the Radar's website. Season five of the wildly popular and critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic zombie drama starts this Sunday, October 12, at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) on AMC. In anticipation of the show's return, for this special theme week of coverage we have interviewed around 10 members of the show's current cast and will be posting one to two Walking Dead interviews every day this week. Also, here's a zombie-themed list.

Horror films are as old as the medium itself, but as audiences change, the monsters on the screen change along with them. It's fitting, then, that The Walking Deadis among the best horror available these days, when television is considered more artistic and engaging than a typical feature length film. But it is built on a long history of zombies on film, and each representation has played a key role in reflecting the fears and the unspoken realities of the people screaming in the safety of the theater. The Walking Dead has decades of inspiration to draw on, from the ridiculous and comical, to the gory and terrifying.

In honor of the return of The Walking Dead, here is our list of the most essential zombie films. By Cody Ray Shafer

Last week FOX debuted Gotham, a detective series that takes place in the fictional titular city. Of course, the series is based on characters from DC comics' Batman, a character who first showed up in ink 75 years ago.

Gotham takes a twist on the Batman mythos by focusing on the early career of The Dark Knight's closest ally, James Gordon, a police officer who eventually takes on the mantle of Gotham police commissioner. In various retellings of the Batman origin story, Gordon plays a major role in tackling corruption within the police department and political infrastructure of Gotham, ensuring the criminals Batman takes down stay locked away. The TV series Gotham also takes place years before Bruce Wayne dons the cape and cowl, so we'll theoretically never see Batman in this series.

But it's not like Batman is a stranger to TV audiences anyway. Aside from the massively successful movie series from Christopher Nolan—not to mention an uneven series of films from the '90s—Batman has also seen his fair share of TV time slots, from prime time to weekday afternoons. Batman TV shows come in as wide a variety of tone and production as gadgets in Batman's belt. Some offer the best Batman on screen, others are bleak disappointments. Here we attempt to rank Batman's many TV incarnations. Where will Gotham end up on this list? By Cody Ray Shafer

We have had a special theme on Under the Radar's website over the last week which we're simply calling Scotland Week. All throughout the week we have been posting interviews, reviews, lists, and blog posts relating to Scotland and in particular Scottish music. Here's a list of the Top 9 essential Cocteau Twins songs. The legendary dream pop band was founded in Grangemouth, Scotland in 1979 by Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser, and Will Heggie (who left in 1983 and was replaced by Simon Raymonde). Read our recent interview with Guthrie and Raymonde on the creation of their album Blue Bell Knoll. And read on as Mack Hayden breaks down his favorite Cocteau Twins songs.

I've always thought it was kind of fitting I first really got into Cocteau Twins after finishing David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks. Perhaps it's because the tone of their music so closely matches the tone of that series. It's alternately dark and heavenly, making beauty out of the purgatory we most often call the planet earth.

Like Twin Peaks, Cocteau Twins always feels too off-kilter to be familiar and too comforting to be foreboding. Cocteau Twins never so much mapped out a new sound as they did use a sonic palate that was limitless and infinite. They paint with the kind of colors that fall outside the spectrum we're used to and make us feel like we're reaching beyond ourselves into some transcendent mystery. At the center of their music is Robin Guthrie's eternal and effects-laden guitar work and Elizabeth Fraser's angelic, delicate and difficult-to-understand vocal style. Together, they created music as vast and awesome as a stormy ocean and as bizarrely meaningful as the night sky's constellations. There are songs on the first couple records which sound so foreboding that they could've been played with the tentacles of Cthulhu but by the time you get to albums such as Treasure or Heaven or Las Vegas, they're coming up with tracks which would inspire Kevin Shields, Robert Smith, and God himself alike.

If you haven't dove into their work yet, here's nine songs (one from each of their records, in chronological order) that will get you standing on the shoulders of these dream pop giants. By Mack Hayden

We have a special theme on Under the Radar's website this week which we're simply calling Scotland Week. All throughout the week we will be posting interviews, reviews, lists, and blog posts relating to Scotland and in particular Scottish music.

Belle and Sebastian built their artistic and fan-friendly reputation in the mid- to late-'90s releasing terrific EPs in between their highly acclaimed and monochromatically decorated LPs, a rare feat for any post-'60s band. Choosing 10 songs from a deep and consistent catalog that best represent the group's long and storied career seems more fitting than choosing what would surely be a hotly contested best-of list. Therefore, this is ranked in chronological order. By Gary Knight

Somewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there's room for these 15 characters.

With Comic-Con in our rearview mirror and Guardians of the Galaxy due out this week, comic book movies and TV series have once again taken over pop culture. Once again, Marvel basically took Twitter out of commission for a few hours during its panel at Comic-Con where they showed footage of their sure-fire hits and teased a few tidbits about future projects.

But this year, there was something missing from Marvel's big presentation. While in the past we've gotten announcements/hints about Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and other Marvel properties, this year all we got was a Guardians of the Galaxy 2 release date-there weren't any new film or TV announcements. So to help Marvel along, we put this list together of 15 Marvel Comics characters/teams who should get their own movie or TV show. They're loosely ranked in order from "Admittedly, this is a longshot" to "How has this not been announced yet?!" A quick caveat: This is the part where we remind you Marvel only owns the rights to certain characters-so the list doesn't include anyone who primarily exists in the worlds of X-Men, Fantastic Four (film rights both owned by Fox) or Spider-Man (film rights owned by Sony). In any case, hopefully plenty of these will soon make their way to a theater near you.

Invariably, that's the response I get from fellow Americans when trying to discuss Pet Shop Boys with them. And I'm tired of it. Sick and tired of it, folks.

Don't get me wrong, I love "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," but there is so. Much. More.

I'm fanatical about Pet Shop Boys. I'm fanatical about them in the same way the Depeche Mode fans who commented on my recent Depeche Mode piece are. Although, I think I'm less angry? Then again, perhaps not. The conversation outlined above does make my blood boil and fill me with inexplicable rage. But I mean, I'm not so fanatical of a fan that I can't recognize when Pet Shop Boys put out a clunker; Bilingual, Nightlife, andReleaseweren't great. Rather spotty, if I'm being honest. In fact, some bits of that album run are downright silly.

But still.

Here are some things, according to Wikipedia, Americans should know about Pet Shop Boys right freaking now:

Guinness Book of World Records has named Pet Shop Boys the most successful duo in U.K. music history.

According to Billboard, as of 2003, they were listed as the 4th (behind Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Donna Summer) most successful act on the U.S. Dance/Club charts.

They've sold over 50 million albums worldwide, had 42 Top 30 singles, and 22 hits in the U.K. Top 10.

Let's face it: Depeche Mode haven't released a good album in nearly a decade. And Playing the Angel was good, not great. They haven't released a great album in over 20 years. Last year's Delta Machine was unlistenable. 2009's Sounds of the Universe was similarly excruciating (except "In Chains"-that song was pretty dope). Some say this slow and steady decline is a result of Martin Gore allowing Dave Gahan to bully his way into the songwriting (to what extent Gahan actually "writes" songs is unclear). But that's letting Gore off the hook. Gahan has only had writing credits on a handful of tracks since 2005, and one of them is "Suffer Well," which is the best Depeche Mode song since 1997's "Barrel of a Gun". Things really started to go downhill once Alan Wilder left after Songs of Faith and Devotion. And we still have no idea what Andy Fletcher does, right?

Truth is, they sound tired. Bored. Burnt out. But shit, they've been around for almost 35 years. They're still touring and they still put on astonishingly good shows. And the Music for the Masses-Violator-Songs of Faith and Devotion trifecta is still one of the best album runs in pop music history. Plus they gave us "Policy of Truth." 'Nuff said?

Anyway, here are 10 Depeche songs that aren't on nearly enough iPods. (Are iPods still a thing?) We even dumped them into a Spotify playlist for ya.

William Friedkin's 1973 film The Exorcist is just as famous for its use of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" as it is for its 360 head turn—perhaps, in fact, even more so. Richard Strauss' Nietzsche-inspired tone poem "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" is probably much more commonly referred to as the music from the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey than it is by its real name. The point we're trying to make: sometimes the marriage of movie and song are so inseparable, so capable of encapsulating the mood of the sequence, that all other meanings and contexts are lost. In honour of these inspired "needle drops," we've collected a list of the best choices made by some of the best directors. By Lauren Down

What links Choke (2008), The Shipping News (2001), Chocolat (2000), The House of Mirth (2000), and The Cider House Rules (1999)? That's right. You guessed it. They're all movies that credit the casting director Suzanne Smith-Crowley. A second thing they have in common is that they are all movies that were based on books. If there's anything contemporary Hollywood loves more than avoiding dreaming up original ideas, it's discouraging, dampening, and destroying those individuals who do love to dream up original ideas. That's why television is the place you go to these days for original and innovative content, while Hollywood churns out its uninspiring remakes, reboots, "reinventions," adaptations, dodgy sequels, dodgier prequels, and every five minutes announcing who will be the next (probably British) actor to play Spiderman, Superman, or Howard the Duck. Books are precious things. They can be repugnant things too. Hitler wrote a book. Piers Morgan's written several. Some books are too brilliant, complicated, strange, or just plain bad to ever be transferred successfully to film. With that in mind, we present our top 10 books that Tinsel Town would be wise to leave well alone. By JR Moores

Based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice novels, HBO's fantasy epic series Game of Thronesis currently in its fourth season. I've been covering each episode of this season so far, which has been a blast, but since HBO decided to take a Memorial Day break this week, I thought I'd go back and do a quick recap of what I think are this season's best moments so far. Here we go.

The 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen this Sunday, March 2nd. This week we've taken a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. In this final installment, he'll look at this year's live action category.

Portlandia's fourth season debuts tonight on IFC at 10/9 central, so we thought we'd take a look back at some of the best, strangest, or ironic sketches from our favorite unlikely comic duo. Here are our favorites, from an out of control game of hide and seek, to an all too familiar binge session of Battlestar Galactica, and the near-perfect introduction to the show, "Dream of the '90s."

The 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen this Sunday, March 2nd. Leading in to Oscar weekend, we'll be taking a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. Today, he'll look at this year's documentary category.

The 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen this Sunday, March 2nd. Leading in to Oscar weekend, we'll be taking a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. Today, he'll look at this year's animated category.

Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Scott Dransfield ranks The Shins.

It seems impossible to write about The Shins without starting with a mention of the band's first big exposure: Natalie Portman's famous name-dropping of them in Zach Braff's film Garden State, and the inclusion of two of their songs on the film's trendsetting indie soundtrack. This is because in the beginning, The Shins, in the sound of their music, recording quality, and odd, whimsical lyrics, perfectly exuded the kind of quirkiness that movie needed. Subsequently, they were seized by a young generation and a music press hungry for an outfit that married an old-school '60s feel to lyrics that reflected the silly and scattered thoughts of kids with short attention spans. It's hard to look back over the 13 years since that first album was released and not see the influence of The Shins written all over indie music.

Featuring one of indie rock's most down-to-earth and likeable frontmen, James Mercer, The Shins established themselves early on as melodic powerhouses, and over the span of their career provided a constant output of quality. With the success of third album Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop's best first-week-charting album), the band had a promising future, only to be dissolved by Mercer and replaced with new members for a 2012 reunion. Now in 2014, with Mercer once again focusing on side project Broken Bells, it remains to be seen whether The Shins will continue, but at least they've left behind a legacy.

Ranking The Shins' discography is simultaneously easy and difficult: easy, because it's only four full-length albums long; and difficult, because all four albums are so near-perfect (yes, even 2012's divisive Port of Morrow) that it's tempting to just say they all tie for number one and call it quits. This list, however, will attempt to perform said ranking. Take it with a grain of salt.

The modern golden age of television's luster certainly continued into 2013 with current classic shows ending celebrated runs being replaced by new classics. Not all of the writers of our humble music magazine are avid TV watchers, but eight of our staff (including our two publishers) submitted their Top 20 favorite TV shows of 2013 lists, from which the master list below was derived. Any show that aired new episodes in America in 2013 was eligible. Of course, the definition of "aired" has changed slightly in recent years, with several of this year's best shows streaming exclusively on Netflix and many watching shows after they've first aired via DVR, DVD, or streaming services.

It was a photo finish for our #1 show of 2013. The Walking Dead took our top spot in 2012, but couldn't fend off an attack from Walter White. Breaking Bad's final episodes constituted one of the most acclaimed seasons ever of one of the most lauded shows ever. Diehard Doctor Who fans will likely forever debate whether or not the show is headed in the right direction, but most seemed to agree that November's much hyped 50th anniversary special lived up to expectations and that was enough to land it at #3 on our list.

This year we not only bid farewell to Breaking Bad, but the following, among others, also aired their series finales in 2013: Fringe, Eastbound and Down, 30 Rock, Burn Notice, and The Office.The baton was passed-what a year for new shows, with the following all in their freshman season in 2013: Broadchurch, Masters of Sex, Orphan Black, Hello Ladies, The Americans, The Blacklist, Orange is the New Black, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Goldbergs, Top of the Lake, The Bridge, House of Cards, Maron, The Returned, Hannibal, Rectify, Ray Donovan, and Rick and Morty.

It almost feels strange to list Yeezus as the "best hip-hop album of the year," as Kanye has become the rare artist that transcends both the genre and pop culture to which he belongs. Like no artist since Michael Jackson, he's a household name, a punch-line, and a musical visionary-and nearly every album he makes is now an instant classic. Yeezus is a curious album from an artist that has reached that status, though, as West strips back the creative excess that usually accompanies his ambitions and ends up with a minimalist setting that actually provides more space for his outsized ego. He might not be the greatest rapper ever, the greatest lyricist ever, or the greatest producer ever, but he keeps turning out album after album that reimagines and redefines what hip-hop can be, all the while establishing him as one his generation's most compellingly conflicted personalities. Still, it's a shame that no matter how great he is, he'll still fall short of how great he thinks he is.

The rest of the year belonged to eccentric upstarts, from Chance the Rapper's instant leftfield classic to Danny Brown and Earl Sweatshirt's genius-confirming turns as post-fame success stories. Storytellers (Kevin Gates, Le1f, Ka) had a good run in 2013, too, but even the year's most serious artistic statements (Run the Jewels, Migos) had a thick undercurrent of fun running through them. Overall, this is a top heavy list but a deep one, with five classic or near-classic albums and over a dozen more that suggest that hip-hop has rarely had so many distinctive personalities pulling in so many different directions at one time. By Matt Fink

While the days of watching music videos on television are long gone, over the past several years the visual art form has certainly found second life (like so many other things) as an excellent online commodity. In 2013 many music videos went beyond just being a cool visual acccompaniment of a favorite song to become standout pieces in their own right. Whether they were cinematically compelling, told a great story, were creatively off-beat and did something different, or were just incredibly entertaining, the here are Under the Radar's favorites from a fantastic year.

To put together this list, our film contributors submitted their personal Top 10s (with the option to extend it to a Top 20) and our final rankings were calculated from those ballots. We present Under the Radar’s Top 20 Films of 2013 below.

For some, "electronic" may be roughly as useful a term as "alternative" these days, but the intriguing breadth of work listed below points toward 2013 being a banner year electronic music. Daft Punk aimed for the top of the pop charts and made it, while artists such as The Knife aimed right between the eyes and hit their own target.

Throughout the year, many stellar performances go underseen, are overlooked, or are otherwise underrated. In this piece, cinema writer John Oursler spotlights several of 2013's overlooked performances.

Either 2013 was just a really, really great year for music or we're a bit indecisive. Whatever the case, instead of our traditional Top 100 albums list this year we present the Top 125 albums of 2013. How did we arrive at such a massive list? Twenty-two of our regular writers and editors (including our two publishers) each submitted their personal Top 45 albums of 2013 lists and then those were all combined and calculated together to form this master list. Then we took the Top 10 from the initial vote and did a second vote to determine our #1 album and the order of the Top 10. For an album to make the Top 125 it had to be picked by at least three writers. And every writer's #1 album of the year is represented somewhere on the list.

This was a year of spectacular comebacks (Suede, My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie, Primal Scream), exciting debuts (CHVRCHES, Foxygen, HAIM, Younghusband), and fantastic new albums from reliable mainstays (Vampire Weekend, The National, Camera Obscura, Foals). Read on and let us know if we missed something or you otherwise have thoughts on this list.

The 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen on Sunday, February 22nd. This week we've taken a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. In this final installment, he'll look at this year's documentary category.

The 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen this Sunday, February 22nd. This week we've taken a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. In this installment, he'll look at this year's animated category.

The 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will happen this Sunday, February 22nd. This week we've taken a look at this year's short film competitions. The Academy defines a short film as an original motion picture running 40 minutes or less, and excludes all advertisments, unaired or unsold television episodes, or credit sequences from feature-length films. Our critic, Shawn Hazelett, watched and ranked all of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts. In this first installment, he'll look at this year's live action category.

Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Cody Ray Shafer ranks The Flaming Lips.

From their inception in the mid '80s, The Flaming Lips have touted themselves as a band you have to see live to really understand. Frontman Wayne Coyne's talent isn't so much his musicianship as his role as a master of weird ceremonies. After all, it was one of the band's crazy concerts—this one featuring a flaming cymbal fueled by lighter fluid that led to at least one incident of a band member's hair catching fire—that landed their record deal with Warner Bros. It is safe to say The Lips rely on gimmicks, lights, balloons, confetti, giant hands, and lasers to win over crowds, something they have managed successfully for nearly three decades.

In the studio, however, The Flaming Lips created a whole new niche in pop music teetering on the edge of avant-garde brilliance. Maybe it's a testament to their old-fashioned Midwestern work ethic, sheer luck, or the raw talent of multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, but Flaming Lips albums are known for explorations into vast caverns of human emotion, psychedelia, and sonic experiments.

These are the best full-length albums from The Flaming Lips, including their often-overlooked pre-Warner Bros. releases.

Omitted are 2012's Heady Fwends duets album, their full-length cover of Pink Floyd's TheDark Side of the Moon with Stardeath and White Dwarfs, the soundtrack for Wayne Coyne's film Christmas on Mars, and any EP releases or compilations.

Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Chris Drabick ranks Elliott Smith.

On the morning of October 22, 2003, I woke, made coffee, and then plodded over to my computer and started poking around the Internet. A typical morning. The news that hit my screen very shortly rendered it anything but: Elliott Smith was dead in Los Angeles. Apparent suicide. I was devastated. I heard the mail carrier arrive. I went to my box. In among whatever else had arrived was a package from Suicide Squeeze Records.

Several times I'd tried to order Elliott Smith's single "Pretty (Ugly Before)" from the Seattle label. I was too late each time, until a week or so before. I was excited. It was Smith's first proper release since Figure 8, an interminable three years plus for a dedicated, nerdy fan like me. Elliott Smith's songs moved me. That's all there is to it. They made me feel sick to my stomach. They were perfect.

Mary Lou Lord was fond of saying that Elliott was the new Kurt Cobain, and I guess she'd know as well as anyone. He was making music for "the sad kids." Maybe. I don't know. I can't know. What I'm certain of is that even Elliott Smith's saddest songs never made me feel sad. How could they? Because they were often minor chord whispers in the darkest of the dark? Because he wrote rage-filled screams at those who hurt and abuse? I didn't, and I don't, find that sad. I find it empowering. And I'm forever grateful that Elliott Smith empowered me.

I opened the package and brought the 7" into my living room. I switched the turntable to 45 (this is an annoyance on that old stripped-down NAD of mine, as it involves lifting off the platter to manually move the belt). Elliott Smith's voice filled my apartment, a new song, a beautiful, sad, hopeful song. Of course, it's just a coincidence. If I'd been luckier or more resourceful or on top of things, that single would've arrived far earlier. But it didn't. It arrived October 22, 2003, the morning I'd learned of his death, the only day it could've empowered me.

Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Dan Lucas ranks Radiohead. And then at the end several of our other writers provide their own ranking of Radiohead's albums.

Welcome to Ranked, our series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all their official studio albums from best to worst. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Austin Trunick ranks Orange Juice.

Aside from launching Edwyn Collins' career, Glasgow's Orange Juice left behind a lovelorn and defiantly catchy discography that largely went under-heard until recent years. As good as their albums were, they had a habit of falling out of print for long stretches of time.

Luckily, Domino Records is reissuing the band's four studio releases on vinyl in the U.S. for Record Store Day. Hopefully your local shop will institute some semblance of law and order on April 20th, but if not, which Orange Juice album should you dive for first in the tangle of dirty, grabbing hands? Feel free to use our rankings as your guide.

Here are Orange Juice's major releases, ranked from most essential to least.

Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist’s catalogue and ranks all their official studio albums from best to worst. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Michele Yamamoto ranks Bright Eyes.

Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst began his career a teenage wunderkind in Omaha, Nebraska with strong ties to the burgeoning music scene and the band’s signature record label, Saddle Creek. Oberst popped up here and there as a solo artist, with a backing band, with a different backing band, playing in a friend’s band. As such, it’s difficult to trace every contribution made by Oberst, but undoubtedly he is best-known for his work as Bright Eyes, which is essentially Oberst with a rotating lineup of musicians that eventually formed a solid core with Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott.

From wunderkind to the next Dylan to something completely different, Bright Eyes has purportedly concluded its run with 2011’s The People’s Key (the last of eight original albums, all on Omaha’s Saddle Creek). And while it’s ideal to hear the progression through the years chronologically, here are Bright Eyes’ major original releases ranked from most essential to least.

[Omitted but Noteworthy: A Christmas Album (2002), Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005) (2006), and truthfully, all of the EPs released]

It always begins the same way. Every January, drunk on the musical riches of the previous 12 months, we find ourselves convinced that no year could match its predecessor. Then—little by little—we discover we're wrong. Here at Under the Radar we could argue that 2012 was an even better year for music than 2011 was, which is why we expanded our Top 80 best albums list from last year to a Top 100 best albums released in 2012.

Each of Under the Radar's writers submitted a list of their Top 35 favorite albums of the year. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 100 albums of 2012 below. Included, when available, are Rdio streams for each album.

This list will also appear in Under the Radar's forthcoming Best of 2012 Issue and several of the artists on this list are interviewed in that issue.

Under the Radar's Hip-Hop Editor, Matt Fink (who also writes many of our feature articles), has put together a list of his Top 10 hip-hop albums released in 2012. We are regarding Frank Ocean's Channel Orange more as an R&B album, rather than a hip-hop one, otherwise it would be #1 on this list.

The modern golden age of television continued in 2012. The best of television in 2012 once again showed off the possibilities of the format, in which plots and characters can be developed over the course of the many hours of a whole season (rather than the two to three hours that most theatrical movies offer). 2012's television landscape took in myriad subjects—from zombie apocalypses to 1920s prohibition, from local political campaigns to international terrorist plots and CIA double agents, from the surreal shenanigans at a community college to the behind the scenes drama of a cable newscast. And then there was once again Doctor Who, whose main character can travel anywhere in time and space!

Louis C.K. had a most memorable date with Parker Posey and a most confounding talk show mentor in David Lynch. Parenthood movingly tackled both cancer and veterans, perhaps slowly changing its status as one of network TV's more underappreciated dramas. The final seasons of 30 Rock and Fringe began, each show seemingly bowing out gracefully and on their own terms (the latter taking place 24 years after its previous season). And we were introduced to Lena Dunham and her very current (and also incredibly funny) worldview with Girls.

Each of Under the Radar's writers submitted a list of their Top 20 favorite television shows of 2012 and those lists were combined and calculated to form our master Top 50 TV Shows of 2012 list. Any show that broadcast new episodes in America sometime in 2012 was illegible. This list also appears in our Best of 2012 print issue.

The #1 show on our 2011 list was Community. If the start of its fourth season hadn't been pushed back to 2013, then perhaps it would've taken the top spot again. Those third season episodes that did air in 2012, however, were good enough to land it at #2.

For a show to make this list it had to be picked by at least three different Under the Radar writers. Some shows that almost made the list, but didn't have quite enough votes, include Nashville, Falling Skies, Revenge, Person of Interest, Revolution, The New Normal, Elementary, Sons of Anarchy, Merlin, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, True Blood, Episodes, Shameless,and others.

Curb Your Enthusiasm was on 2011's list, but didn't air new episodes in 2012 and so wasn't eligible. Shows on our 2011 list that were eligible this year, but didn't make the 2012 cut, include Treme, Blue Bloods, Being Human (U.K. version), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Sons of Anarchy, 2 Broke Girls, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Raising Hope. Taking their places are such new 2012 shows as Girls, The Newsroom, Arrow, Hunted, Benand Kate, Go On, The Mindy Project, and Smash.

NBC is the most represented broadcast network on this list, followed by a tie between ABC and FOX. HBO leads in terms of cable networks, followed by a tie between AMC and FX.

Did we get it right? Which shows should be on this list and which ones shouldn't?

Each of our writers submitted their personal best albums of 2012 list for when we calculated Under the Radar’s master Top 100 Albums of 2012 list. Here are Austin Trunick’s Top 15 albums of 2012.

Instead of focusing on the releases on my list that earned (well-deserved) near-universal acclaim, I’ll write about the few that landed near the top of my ballot but didn’t seem to catch on so widely.

- Sophia Knapp’s breezy debut album easily spent the most time on my turntable out of any record this year, and I still keep coming back for its smooth, disco-era Stevie Nicks feel.

- I probably would have gone much higher with Chad Valley’s LP if I hadn’t already been so enamored with his vocal work on Jonquil’s early-2012 album, Point of Go; it’s probably my most feel-good album of the year.

- I don’t know how they could live up to the intensity of their live shows on record, but Light Asylum’s first full-length is a great collection of aggressive, industrial-influenced dance music.

- Foxygen’s EP was all over the place and fun; they have an album coming out soon that improves on their brand of bonkers.

- Junk Culture’s debut went too under-heard; his punch-drunk rhythms and woozy synth work made for another great debut record in 2012.

- The Darcys had me at “full Steely Dan cover album.”

There are several great albums that, for some reason or another, I just couldn’t get into on early listens—Grimes comes to mind, in particular—but have really grown on me. There always seems to be a record or two that I don’t start obsessing over until I’m already a year late. By Austin Trunick

Welcome to Ranked, our regular series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all their official studio albums from best to worst. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Dan Lucas ranks Wilco.

Since rising from the ashes of alt-country staples Uncle Tupelo, Chicago's Wilco have emerged from their former incarnation's shadow to become one of the most critically-adored bands of the past two decades. In between becoming game changers in the music industry and winning legions of fans over to the Americana genre, they've developed their sound and recorded some of the most gorgeous music never to make the radio.

Welcome to Ranked, our regular series in which one of our writers takes an artist’s catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from best to worst. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Austin Trunick ranks The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Riding seemingly out of nowhere on a wave of harsh fuzz and candy-sweet hooks, Scottish brothers William and Jim Reid—leaders of The Jesus and Mary Chain—would inspire dozens of other acts to turn up the gain dials on their amplifiers with the release of their 1985 debut, Psychocandy. Though the band’s sound and lineup would change many times until their breakup 14 years later, the handful of classic albums they put out in that time was amongst some of the most influential indie records of the era.

Here are The Jesus and Mary Chain’s major releases, ranked from most essential to least.

Welcome to Ranked, our new series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all their official studio albums from best to worst. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Austin Trunick ranksBelle & Sebastian.

Over the course of 17 years, Belle & Sebastian have gone from precious and endearing to frustratingly scattered, before reinventing themselves with a more grandiose sound somewhat far removed from their bedroom-pop beginnings. What began as a collective of musicians tightly shrouded in mystery has spun into a much larger musical identity. The whole time they've been mainstays in the realm of indie music, with their first few albums serving almost as a rite of passage for fans who enjoy the gentler side of the spectrum.

Here are Belle & Sebastian's major releases, ranked from most essential to least.

Welcome to Ranked, our new series in which one of our writers takes an artist's catalogue and ranks all their official studio albums from best to worst. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Austin Trunick ranks Beck.

Like a latter-age David Bowie, Beck Hansen has built a long, successful music career largely because he's (rarely) recorded the same album more than once. A genre chameleon capable of swapping hats multiple times on a single record, half the thrill of being a Beck fan is in the surprises he'll throw our way with each track he releases.

With a new Beck album rumored to be just over the horizon, it's anyone's guess at this point just what direction he'll choose to take it. We've ranked Beck's 10 major studio releases below, from most essential to least, with an explanation of our placement following each entry.

[Note: We're skipping over long-unavailable records such as Golden Feelings or A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, and unreleased (yet leaked) tapes such as Banjo Story, Fresh Meat + Old Slabs, Don't Get Bent Out of Shape, and Beck, Like the Beer, as well as any of the Beck.com exclusive material. Perhaps a guide to Beck rarities is called for in the future?]

It may have been a difficult year for many people for a multitude of reasons (not least of all, the weak economy), but 2011 was certainly a great year for music. Here at Under the Radar we'd argue that it was an even better year for music than 2010 was, which is why this year we've come up with a Top 40 best debut albums of 2011, versus last year's Top 30.

Each of Under the Radar's writers submitted a list of their Top 20 favorite debut albums of the year. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 40 debuts of 2011 below.

Each of Under the Radar's writers submitted a list of their Top 20 favorite TV shows of 2011. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 50 TV shows of 2011. The list will also appear in Under the Radar's forthcoming Best of 2011 Issue.

Favorites from last year’s list, Mad Men and Eastbound & Down didn’t show new episodes in 2011—thus were ineligible in this year’s vote. However, favorites Modern Family, 30 Rock, and Community hung on—joined by such newcomers as American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, New Girl, and Suburgatory. Basically, any show that aired new episodes in America sometime in 2011 was eligible. Check out our final rankings below.

It may have been a difficult year for many people for a multitude of reasons (not least of all, the weak economy), but 2011 was certainly a great year for music. Here at Under the Radar we'd argue that it was an even better year for music than 2010 was, which is why this year we've come up with a Top 80 best albums of 2011, versus last year's Top 50.

Each of Under the Radar's writers submitted a list of their Top 30 favorite albums of the year. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 80 albums of 2011 below.

This list will also appear in Under the Radar's forthcoming Best of 2011 Issue and 36 of the artists on this list are interviewed in that issue. Stay tuned for more info on the issue.

Under the Radar's writers re-listened to many of 2010's notable tracks, debated, and then each submitted a list of their top 30 tracks of 2010. A shorter version of this list appears in our Year-End/Best of 2010 Issue, but below we’ve expanded it to include our top 100 favorite songs.

Under the Radar's Best of 2010 Issue, which is on stands now, features our picks for the Top 50 TV shows of 2010, meaning any show that broadcast new episodes sometime from January to December 2010. Here we present an expanded list, one that includes our thoughts on each of the shows in our Top 15.

Under the Radar's writers played many of 2010's notable games, debated, and then each submitted a list of their Top 10 games of the year. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 20 games of 2010 below.

This list also appears in our Year-End/Best of 2010 Issue, which is on stands now (until late-January 2011). That issue also features interviews with many of the artists on our Top 50, including Sufjan Stevens (who's on the cover), Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Avi Buffalo, Beach House, The Black Keys, Caribou, Club 8, Delphic, Rose Elinor Dougall, Gayngs, Lost in the Trees, Janelle Monáe, of Montreal, Owen Pallett, Plants and Animals, Mark Ronson, Sleigh Bells, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Van Etten, and Yeasayer.

Under the Radar's writers re-listened to many of 2010's notable debut albums, debated, and then each submitted a list of their top 20 debuts albums of the year. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 30 debut albums of 2010. Check out the list below.

This list also appears in our Year-End/Best of 2010 Issue, which is on stands now (until late-January 2011). That issue also features interviews with many of the artists on our Top 50, including Sufjan Stevens (who's on the cover), Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Avi Buffalo, Beach House, The Black Keys, Caribou, Club 8, Delphic, Rose Elinor Dougall, Gayngs, Lost in the Trees, Janelle Monáe, of Montreal, Owen Pallett, Plants and Animals, Mark Ronson, Sleigh Bells, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Van Etten, and Yeasayer.

Under the Radar's writers re-listened to many of 2010's notable albums, debated, and then each submitted a list of their Top 20 albums of the year. Those lists were all combined and tallied up to form Under the Radar's master Top 50 albums of 2010 below.

This list also appears in our Year-End/Best of 2010 Issue, which is on stands now (until late-January 2011). That issue also features interviews with many of the artists on our Top 50, including Sufjan Stevens (who's on the cover), Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Avi Buffalo, Beach House, The Black Keys, Caribou, Club 8, Delphic, Rose Elinor Dougall, Gayngs, Lost in the Trees, Janelle Monáe, of Montreal, Owen Pallett, Plants and Animals, Mark Ronson, Sleigh Bells, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Van Etten, and Yeasayer.